Work Text:
September 11th, 2001.
The South Tower’s elevator doors were just starting to close when a hand slid between them, holding them open with ease.
A masculine hand, its nails painted onyx black.
A hand from a pair Steve knew all too well…
“Garrett!” Steve said, surprised. “I didn’t think you were in this early.”
Garrett stepped inside, a little breathless. “I was hoping to see you at the cafe downstairs. Looks like you beat me to it,” he said, glancing down at the cup in Steve’s hands.
Steve matched his gaze. “Black, no sugar, the way G*d intended.”
Garrett smirked and pressed the button for the 84th floor. “Chicken jockey…”
The elevator hummed as it started to rise. The silence between the pair wasn’t awkward, but weighted; familiar.
Outside, the morning sun shined on Manhattan, as if each skyscraper a stack of golden blocks.
It was going to be a perfect day.
8:46 am.
The entire building lurched.
Well, “lurched” would be an understatement. The unfamiliar sound that pierced the two men’s ears was earth-shatteringly sharp, like metal screaming through metal… The sound of two unnatural monolithic structures breaking apart, far away but far too close. The lights flickered, struggling to stay on; the elevator stopped; the air stilled.
The two men instinctively braced the walls opposite each other. Steve’s coffee dropped from his hands , the lid popping off as it hid the elegant quartz floor. A brown splash began to spread slowly.
“What the Boots of Swiftness was that?” Garrett whispered shakily.
Steve didn’t answer right away. His hand had fount Garrett’s muscular bicep instinctively.
The emergency lights kicked on, red, dim. The hum of the elevator was gone.
“Must’ve been a Water Bucket, Release,” Steve said, his voice trying too hard to be calm. “We’re stuck…”
Garrett looked up at the panel. No floor number was lit. No sound from above or below just emptiness.
“Okay, Garrett said. “Okay, we’ve got the emergency phone, its fine.”
He pulled open the small panel and picked up the receiver. Nothing.
Steve whimpered and winced like a good little boy. “Got a Plan B?”
“Mhm! ENDER PEARL! Comin in hot!!” Garrett screamed, pulling one from his buttcheek pocket, tossing it at the ceiling as if it could pass through it. It didn’t. “What the sigma…” he groaned.
Steve ran a hand through his hair and sat down on the floor, knees bent, ignoring Garrett’s antics. “I don’t think this is a regular outage… You don’t think it’s…?” He looked up at his alpha worriedly.
Garrett somberly looked at the telephone again. “9/11? I… I don’t know.”
The building groaned again. Garrett sat down beside Steve.
The silence returned, deeper this time. It hung heavy now, pierced only by the occasional creak from the walls around them.
The elevator hadn’t move. No voices outside. No instructions. No chance of rescue…
just them.
Steve rested his head against the cool metal wall. Garrett sat across from him, elbows on his knees, eyes fixed on the emergency light above the panel. The red glow cast soft shadows on his face.
“…I keep thinking about the little things,” Steve started suddenly.
Garrett turned to him.
Steve continued, quieter now. “The days I forgot to call my mom… the cereal I left unfinished this morning… the times I wanted to fuck you #NastyStyle but was scared to.”
Garrett shook his head. “It’s not stupid, Steven.”
“I wasn’t ready for today to be the end,” Steve continued, a touch louder and faster despite the tears welling in his eyes. “Not when I ever said what I meant to say to you…”
Garrett’s brow furrowed. “You can say it now.”
Steve looked at him. Really looked, through the tears now streaming down his face. “You make the days easier! You make this office bearable! You’ve been the reason I didn’t quit, more than once! The nether! I didn’t think an alpha like you could ever even notice an omega like me but .......... i guess i was hoping.”
Garrett’s voice came low. “I noticed…”
They didn’t kiss, not yet, but their shoulders brushed.
A moment passed. Soft, suspended.
Then, from far away, the distant hollow boom of something else hitting the building. The lights flickered again.
Steve tensed. “We’re running out of time.”
Garrett stood up and pressed his ear against the elevator doors. “Something’s happening. I… I hear the fire alarms. I smell smoke.”
He turned around, more serious now. “If we don’t make it, I just want you to know… I wanted to be brave, Steven! I wanted to be more than some guy who just crunches numbers and hides who he is. I wanted to be someone who mattered… I wanted to be the flint to your steel.”
Steve pushed himself up , grabbed Garrett by the arm, and looked into him lovingly.
“You already are.”
The elevator jerked slightly. Something cracked and snapped. A light popped.
Steve looked up at the cieling, his heart racing. “Do you feel that??”
Garrett nodded. “We need to get out. Somehow.”
He grabbed the emergency hatch of swiftness and tried to push it open; it budged slightly.
Steve gave him a boost, hands on Garrett’s waist, steadying him as he climbed; garrett hoisted himself up, disappearing for a second into the dark. There was a pause.
Then.
“There’s a maintenance ladder! Steve, come on!!”
Steve climbed up behind him. The heat was starting to rise. The air was tighter.
As they emerged into the Shaft, smoke curled above and below them. The tower groaned again. Time was not on their side, nor was the plane.
Together, they climbed. One floor. Two. Panting and sweating in a hot gay way.
Then, another explosion rocked the building, the metal shook and Garrett slipped.
Steve caught his arm just in time. “Don’t you dare let go!!” he yelled.
They scrambled onto thge next ledge. There was a shattered maintenance door. Then a wall caved in. There was fire. There was heat. Something gave way beneath their feet.
Garrett fell through the floor.
Steve lunged and missed by inches. “GARREET^T^TTTTTT!!!!!!!!!”
There was no reply.
Steve’s hands trembled. He backed away, chest heaving, eyes wide.
He staggered through the broken wall, vision blurring, coughing on ash. But through the roar a figure stepped out. Burned, scorched, face partially hidden by soot and blood but ALIVE.
Garrett!
No… Something different.
Its eyes glowed faintly white.
“You were supposed to be a hero, Brian!” Steve screamed.
“Herobrine? I think I like that name…” it grinned.